


Mock Apples

by Jaffre



Series: Captain Chungus and Phineas Welles: A Post-Game Emotional Contemplation [2]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: NB Captain, Other, POV Second Person, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 10:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21355042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaffre/pseuds/Jaffre
Summary: It takes the Captain a few months to realise their true feelings towards Phineas.
Relationships: The Captain/Phineas Welles
Series: Captain Chungus and Phineas Welles: A Post-Game Emotional Contemplation [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542040
Comments: 10
Kudos: 80





	Mock Apples

Maybe it was the way you held him too close when you freed him on Tartarus. You couldn't help yourself when you saw him out of the cell, overflowing with joy to see he was okay. He looked so vulnerable back then, you feared he would shatter under your tight embrace.

Maybe it was the way you stuck close to him every step of the way since then. You may not be smart enough to understand the details of the revival process, but you're good at following instructions. And so he'd order you around the lab, fetching this, holding that, and you were happy to oblige.

Maybe it was the way you'd always believed in him, from the very beginning. Trusting him, a stranger, sending you in an even stranger world. It would have been so easy to sell him out to the Board. To give in to the easy life of following the corporate demands. Of course, that never even crossed your mind.

Now that the Board was in shambles, the colonists you'd revived together were hard at work to save Halcyon from collapsing completely.

He would sleep on a makeshift bed in his lab on the Hope. You tried to convince him to fill a cabin back on the Unreliable, but he categorically refused, claiming it was a waste of his time to walk back and forth between the two ships; and they couldn't afford to lose time with the fate of the colony at stake! He wasn't wrong, although you've always suspected that he didn't want to be alone with you on the Unreliable. Well, with you and ADA. You couldn't blame him, whatever his true reasons may be.

With your crew departed to carry on their own individual adventures, the ship was too quiet for your lonesome. So, instead of him coming to you, you'd always come to him. That way you could make sure he was resting as he should; sleep deprivation wasn't going to help him save the colonists.

At first, you thought it was simply his drive, how urgent the task was, the amount of work needed, that kept him away from sleep. There was so much to be done, never wanting to waste a single second of it. But as you hung around the lab more, stayed by his side as he dozed off, you realised. The nightmares.

His body shaking in his sleep. Waking in a cold sweat, sometimes screaming. You acted like you didn't notice. You didn't want him to feel self-conscious about it. He had already enough going on not to add this to the pile. But you knew, and sometimes, when he trembled at the dark thoughts plaguing him, you would gently hold his hand. Sometimes he'd squeeze back when you swore he was asleep.

It'd been months. You were eating mock apples from Terra 2, sitting on his makeshift bed in his lab. He was talking about how the recently revived colonists were adjusting to their environment, and complained about Adelaide's lack of cooperation in your endeavors to save Halcyon. He bit into the apple, juice spilling from the fruit. You held your sleeve to his face to wipe it off. That's when it hit you. When you realised it.

You'd been in love with him this entire time.

"Phineas," you said, so softly it would have been lost in the sea of his words if he wasn't always so attentive to you.

His brow furrowed with concern. You weren't this soft-spoken, usually. You looked up at him, a smile blossoming on your face.

"I love you."

He was taken aback. Of course. Of course he would be. Confusion was all over his face, but as your smile grew wider, it turned to embarrassment. He stuttered demands of an explanation, was this a joke? Of course it wasn't, you replied, and all the warmth in your voice carried it to his heart.

You held his hand, and the two of you talked. How a few months ago, neither of you would have even considered a relationship, that the fate of the colony was more important than any of your own. You kissed each of his knuckles as he explained he wasn't worthy of your love, a notion you swiftly rebutted. You cupped his cheek, and asked if you could kiss him. He turned as red as a Zero Gee Brew, muttered you could if you wanted to. And so you did. As you gently pressed your lips against his, your fingers intertwined. A soft whimper escaped his throat, like he was afraid to be happy. Tears filled his eyes, and when you parted away, he cried on your shoulder.

The mock apples were left uneaten, for you hugged as long as each of you needed.

**Author's Note:**

> Fits within the continuity of my other fic "The road ahead" but don't require reading to understand this one. I just wanted to separate the platonic and romantic aspects, cause sometimes you just want to help a friend, and other times you want to smooch him, and that's valid.
> 
> I hadn't written such a long and important conversation in indirect dialogue before, but I really didn't feel confident enough in being able to replicate Phineas' voice to do that in direct quotes.
> 
> Also, here's your reminder that my Captain is named Chungus.


End file.
